Fish secrete a mucoprotein protective slime coat that covers the scales and skin. This slime coat acts as a defense against invasion by bacterial, parasitic, protozoan, and fungal pathogens. The slime coating contains enzymes and antibodies to fight infection and acts as a shield against disease causing organisms in the fish's external environment. The slime coating also acts as a barrier to prevent loss of internal electrolytes and body fluids.
Stress is the most common cause of a deteriorated slime coat, the other cause being mechanical damage. Stress on fish can be caused by a number of common factors, including poor water quality (e.g. improper pH, salinity, etc.), water temperature fluctuations, water changes, fish incompatibility, transportation, netting/handling the fish, and infection/disease.
When a fish is netted, handled or placed in a stressful situation, for example in an environment having low oxygen, high carbon dioxide or temperature fluctuations, the slime coating is disturbed, making the fish vulnerable to disease, such as bacterial, fungal and parasitic diseases. Moreover, ammonia, a waste product of fish's digestion and respiration, is released into the water containing fish. Ammonia is also released at high levels by dead fish and decaying food. At high ammonia levels, the fish are subject to ammonia burns which disturb the slime coating and adversely affect the fish.
Water treatment conditioners are currently being used in the art to help build up or maintain a fish's slime coat. These products typically comprise plant essential oils, either alone or a combination thereof, and work by eliminating the stresses in the aquatic environment, which have a negative effect on a fish's slime coat. The major drawback to this technology is that the fish are only treated if they are in the treated water. The essential oils are dispensed into the water and penetrate the fish's body, but the products do not contain any additional component for sealing the oils onto the body of the fish. Unfortunately, with these types of treatments, once the fish are removed from the treated habitat their slime coat is once again vulnerable to stress and degradation, and ultimately, bacteria, parasites, and fungal pathogens.
Another treatment currently being used in the art involves the use of what is referred to as bio-sphere technology. These products contain antibiotics encapsulated within microscopic bio-spheres. The spheres attach to the fish's body and breakdown over time. As the spheres breakdown, the antibiotics are released from within the spheres to topically treat the fish. There are several problems with using the sphere-based products to protect fish. First, the products currently on the market encapsulate synthetic antibiotics, such as Sulfadimidine and trimethoprin. Synthetic antibiotics are strong medications that can potentially harm certain fish. In addition, the products available on the market are only capable of treating bacterial and fungal infections. These infections are only two possible types of infections to which fish can be susceptible. Finally, it is difficult to obtain instantaneous and complete coverage of a fish's body by using the bio-spheres. The spheres breakdown over time thereby delaying treatment of the fish. This delay in treatment could have the effect of possibly exacerbating the infection affecting the fish. Also, because the spheres can vary in shape and size, their breakdown following attachment to the fish can result in incomplete coverage of the fish's entire body.
Therefore, there exists a need for the development of a new treatment for the prevention and maintenance of a fish's slime coat to keep the fish safe from harmful pathogens and infestations, which treatment (1) directly treats the fish's body and not the fish's environment, (2) contains plant essential oils instead of harsh synthetic chemicals, (3) provides protection for a fish against all types of infections, and (4) provides instantaneous and complete coverage of a fish's body to treat and protect the fish from infections.
Because of the above described problems in the prior art, there is a widely felt need for new products to treat a fish's slime coat and protect fish from bacterial, fungal, protozoan, and parasitic infestations.